“On Wednesday afternoon, five US publishing companies told the District Court for the Southern District of New York that they objected to a recent proposal made by the Department of Justice (DoJ) to punish Apple for allegedly fixing prices on e-books. Apple was found guilty in July of conspiring to raise e-book prices, although the company says it will appeal the decision. The five publishers—HarperCollins, Lagardere, Hachette, Simon & Schuster, Penguin Random House, and Macmillan—were all defendants along with Apple in the price-fixing case, but all five agreed to settlement terms, which included collectively paying back $164 million to consumers who were overcharged.” (via Ars Technica)

Of course the publishers are objecting, they worked with Apple and Amazon to inflate the price of ebooks.. There is no way that an ebook should cost more than the print book. But for a long time it did — in some cases still does.